Kings 6, Blues 2

Wednesday December 18, 2002

LOS ANGELES (AP) No target was too small or distant for Eric Belanger.

His first career hat trick included one goal into the tiniest of openings, and a short-handed empty-netter from about 150 feet in the Los Angeles Kings' 6-2 victory over St. Louis on Tuesday night.

The goal that put the Kings ahead to stay also came off Belanger's stick a short wrist shot that found a tiny crack of daylight between goalie Brent Johnson's left shoulder and the crossbar for a 2-1 edge.

``That second goal was a heck of a shot because there couldn't have been much up there,'' Johnson said. ``I still don't know how that went in.''

Johnson, who shut out Atlanta on Saturday night, also surrendered power-play goals to Jaroslav Modry, Bryan Smolinski and Ziggy Palffy. Felix Potvin made 18 of his 34 saves in the third period.

``It was a great effort by everybody,'' said Belanger, a third-year center who has six goals in nine games following an 18-game drought. ``The Cat made some big saves, we got some big goals on the power play, and everybody played hard. We've got to play like this every night.''

The Kings matched their highest-scoring effort of the season and connected a season-high three times with the man advantage. Palffy connected during a four-minute advantage after Keith Tkachuk high-sticked Dmitry Yushkevich in the face.

``You can't allow a team like that to get three goals on the power play,'' Blues defenseman Al MacInnis said. ``It really hurts without Chris Pronger killing penalties. We knew at the beginning of the season that he was going to be out a long time, but we just have to deal with it.''

Belanger, who failed to score in eight previous games against St. Louis, got his second of the game on a short backhander at 17:58 of the second period after Erik Rasmussen set up Jason Allison in the slot.

Allison, who had three assists, has 11 points in seven games after missing the previous 15 because of a sprained ligament in his right knee.

``He's a strong presence out there,'' MacInnis said. ``He's got great vision and great hands. You have to be aware of where he is on the ice all the time. You just can't give him any room or time with the puck.''

Tkachuk and Scott Mellanby scored power-play goals for the Blues, 7-10-3 since a nine-game winning streak.< ^Notes:@ The Kings next play Thursday night against Anaheim's Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who took a streak of three consecutive shutouts into Wednesday night's game against the Blues. ... Modry opened the scoring at 15:17 with his ninth goal one more than he had in the previous two seasons combined.

(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)